Food choices as a USM student (Part 2)

This is a continuous post from the previous. What introduce from the previous post is what we usually eat. But once in a blue moon, we would love to have a scrumptious meal. Hence here is a few list of places we normally went. All of these selected ones is basically serving good food with low price and environment with air conditional.

1. SPADE Burger

This is located at i-Avenue. They served charcoal burger with pork/beef/chicken/fish/mushroom, you can have a look at their menu here. I usually ordered their burger along with their set (fries and refillable drink) with an addition of RM5.50. If you are not a big eater, you can share the set with your friends because the portion is large (I sometimes did that too). The local says their food use to be much cheaper last time, the price slightly increase but still worth it if you don't make it a regular. Price now is around RM17 with set.

2. Sushi Mentai

Sushi Mentai is a restaurant known for serving cheap sushi, their outlet expand widely in most region of Malaysia. Where I usually visit during my schooling day is the one located at Elit Avenue. They served sushi at the price of RM1.80 for yellow plate and RM2.80 for red plate. Some of my coursemates actually banned this restaurant as their serving wasn't to the expectation of sushi you get in Sushi Zanmai, Ichiban Boshi or etc. But well my gang actually are fine with it, as long as you keep in mind that this is cheap sushi, you couldn't expect too much as it's worth what you pay. 

But note that their ala carte wasn't really good, to avoid disappointment better don't order. Their sweet sauce is a little too fluid and their green tea doesn't taste like green tea, otherwise is okay! We usually just go for their sushi while green tea is just for hydrating purpose.

3. Sunshine Food Court

This is the place we usually come for air condition but not wanting to spend more. This stall we usually (always) order is the second last stall from that row. They sell sort of economic rice set which serves with pork/chicken/fish with different sauces, cabbage and egg that comes with the price of RM5.50 only.

4. Queens Hall

The reason for coming all the way to Queensbay but to only had meal in their food court mainly because to avoid getting drench in the rain. The most popular food in that food court will be Chilli Pan Mee that cost RM6.90 per bowl comes with their signature chilli sauce, flowy egg and deep fried anchovies. There's one stall where we later found out served cheap bowl of hot noodles is the Yong Tau Foo stall choosing 3 yong tau foo to go with either tomyum or curry noodles with only RM6.90, a good deal too for big eater but the adverse side of this bowl of noodles will be their soup, very oily serving taste unappealing bland.

5. Aza aza Starvil Korean Restaurant

This Korean Restaurant is located directly opposite Queensbay mall. Is somewhere you get to taste good Korean food with affortable price. And they play RunningMan of different episode on their television every day. They served only 4 side dishes but it's good enough and what best is it's refillable, we especially love their potato mayo salad. Last time we used to order bbq meat but nowadays we will just go with their soup and bibimbap. Sometimes we do order their tteokbokki if we do have the appetite for more food. Our bill usually comes with less than RM20 per person, not very expensive for Korean food.

6. Raja Uda Tomyum

The superb place for supper! It's located beside Kwang Hwa school at Raja Uda where you need to cross the Penang bridge. I used to come here very often during my AIESEC days after meeting. They opened till late night and the food is worth to wait, sometimes the wait may take up to an hour. I'm someone who don't really recognize the price of each ingredient. What I usually pick and must pick is the fish meat, egg and pork meat, it's a must okay, very very good! Not too expensive also for the price, it's base on what you took. My bowl usually comes with the price of RM5-8. But if you take prawn and all those expensive seafood ingredients, it will definitely shoot up to above RM10. I miss this the most!

7. JL Gourmet

It's located in Prangin mall 3rd floor. I actually wrote a post about this, you can refer here. Set comes at only RM19.90 which include main course, soup, drinks and ice cream. The set is huge, the food is good, the service is good, the environment is good, basically everything is good here; the only downside here is the location.

8. Pizzaiola Lot 33 Prangin Mall

Another restaurant in Prangin mall serving pizza. They come with set too with spaghetti and pizza, their spaghetti doesn't taste nice you can just ignore that but their pizza comes with thin crust definitely worth the price. Set is at the price of RM39 for 2 pax which comes with mushroom soup, caesar salad, ice lemon tea, ice cream and main course while for 4 pax it's at the price of RM79 served with an extra italian sorbet. Go for the 4 pax ones if you have more people! You pay less than RM20 for a 5 course set meal, worth right? I know I'm cheapskate.

9. Saffron Prangin Mall

Another restaurant in Prangin Mall again? These are all the restaurant which is cheap and provide a good environment. Anyway, I noticed that the car park fee had increased. This restaurant located opposite Pizzaiola, they are very competitive at times. This restaurant served semi-buffet where you order a main course and you get to eat whatever placed at the desk which includes salad, dessert and soup. You can refer here where I once wrote a post about them. The only drawback is that they don't provide free drinks.

Food choices as a USM student (Part 1)

If you are studying in USM main campus you will know that this university provides a great range of food variety, there's cafe in every hostel and each cafe have at least 3 stalls some have more up to 8 stalls. In the campus itself, there is already more than 13 cafes available and the food choices vary from Chinese, Indian, Malay to Western; mamak to cafe serving cake. But after few years in the University and with friends having transport, we tend to have our meal outside of the campus. (Note that some stall only operates in the morning / afternoon or at night)

Hence here is a list of few places I usually visit. Some are within walking distance while some are to be reachable by car. The foods are good and prices are reasonable hence the frequent visit.

1. PISA Corner

This is the food court I visited most often in a frequency of 3 times per week. This place provides a wide range of food from Korean to Japanese, Roti Canai to Western, varieties of rice and noodles, and also dessert and snacks to sip or munch on. This is the place we always agree to come because you can eat whatever you want to that day without considering if someone are craving for curry mee but another is craving for Kimchi soup. The price is reasonable, of course, it depends on what you order, a bowl of noodle normally charge at the range of RM4 - 6 while other food will be charged at a slightly higher price but still cheap if it's to compare with those served in the restaurant. I personally love the dry curry mee there which cost only RM4, the serving is big and the ingredient served super worth it!

2. Hidden Recipe Cafe

When you have no transport and wanted a good environment to chat, chill and air condition, this is the place you are finding. It's a place with air conditional and walking distance from USM. They serve food from Western to Chinese. They offer a few variety of set which is the normal western food (with mushroom soup, bread, drinks and ice cream) and economy rice with meat, egg, soup of the day and drinks. Apart from that they also offer set from menu which with an addition of RM5 you will get the exact same side dish offer from their western set. My favourite goes to Mee Jawa set which cost RM10 served with coffee! There's a few other noodles and fried rice to opt. (On a side note: rice set portion is larger compared to noodles but both served are reasonable for their prices!)

3. Fast food (KFC / Subway / MCD)

The most convenient food in the world! KFC is the one we visit most often, their lunch and dinner set RM6.90 for 1 piece of chicken, soft drink and fries and RM7.90 for 1 piece of chicken, rice, drinks and coleslaw / whipped potato. Still reasonable right the price :) The smell of the fried chicken is irresistible, every time you pass by the restaurant it does have that magic power to absorb you into it.

Next, Subway the healthier type of fast food! They provide varieties of bread with meat, vegetables, and sauce. They now have the promotion of "Subway Every Day Value" where 4 types of sandwiches are priced at RM7.30. My coursemates who don't eat beef actually fall in love with Meatball Marinara (note that this is beef). If you are a student in USM and are active in events you will surely get lots of Subway coupon. With half price coupon, I would love to buy my favourite sandwich which is Subway Melt!

We don't really have our meal at MCD that often now because they no longer offer dinner set. Other set meal price increases a little too. Btw, lunch set is still available while my friends opt for kids meal! It's still a great place you get to nom as it's open 24 hours and wifi available.

Apart from that, there's Pizza Hut too.

4. Happy Cafe

This is the place we will visit every time we plan to go out for lunch. It's located at Taman Pekaka opposite Maxim Dim Sum. The economy rice has a variety of choices for you to choose, the price is reasonable as well. But if you compare with Ah Hooi uncle from Tekun USM it will be slightly expensive. Side note, their coffee not nice :P

5. Plus 2
Another place for lunch famous with their wan tan mee serving at RM3.70 (small), RM4.20 (medium) and RM4.70 (big)! They also served a variety of fried rice and my favourite goes to Fried Rice with Mango (Spicy) at the price of RM5. It's reachable within walking distance :)

6. Hakka Mee (Kampar Fish Jelly)
It's located at Sungai Nibong, beside the bridge you will pass by if you are heading to Queensbay. This is a place where we can select our choice of yong tau foo (either fried or soup) with hakka mee (other variety of noodles is available too) or yam rice. They are famous with their pok pok chui and chicken wing. I usually order yam rice because it's half the price of noodles :P

7. Super Tanker Food Court

Another food court located at Lip Sin which is nearer to USM but still you will need transport to reach. They are famous for their chicken rice, their soup is special (taste spicy and sour), definitely a must try!

8. Subaidah

Mamak! There's actually one in our school serving at a cheaper price, the one located at Lip Sin is slightly expensive if compared to school price but the serving is great. I love the Tosai there serving with onion or kaya, the portion is big and delicious serving at RM2 per piece. If you are having it in school, try their Nasi Kandar and Fried Maggi. My friend especially loves their Roti John pricing at RM2.80. However the coffee in school not nice :P

9. Ivory
This is a place located at Bukit Gambir, often visit by IK or RST students. A place where you have a variety of choice on Malay food. There also stall that serve Arab food, worth exploring. But I myself actually favour D'cafe Ria in Tekun for their claypot chicken rice serving at only RM4. My sister actually loves it too, the portion is huge.

Khaleel is another mamak located at Ivory open 24 hours for supper and chit chatting. They are famous with their burger ;)

10. Xiao Mu Wu (Heng Leong "Zhu Char")

It's been a long time since I had my meal there. The chef is originally from Kim Hin but recently he himself had open a new restaurant located few stall beside Kim Hin and Tesco serving dinner and it's always full house. Their dishes are served in large portion and cheap price definitely a hotspot for USM student. Oat Mantis Prawn is always on our menu!

11. Ah Blue vegetarian delivery

It's a vegetarian delivery by uncle where you can place your order in facebook group (it's a secret group btw so you need someone inside to invite you in). He served great food with only RM4 per set. The menu varies every day and you wouldn't know what is served till you get the lunch box, it's always a surprise for me. I totally love their food! He sometimes comes with special menu such as Nyonya curry, Assam fish, lamb curry and etc. If you are a picky person, you can comment what you don't want (no spicy, no brinjal, no ladyfinger) or what would love to add (most of them I see add hash brown and egg). I would definitely recommend this to everyone, the only limitation for RST residents is that he delivers only till the gate so you might need proximate 10 mins walking down from your room to the gate and another 10 mins walking up back to your room. Previously he does deliver to your hostel but due to the strict security these days, haiy walk people. But there's no problem for resident inside campus. I do have a post particularly on it, have a look here.

Fort Cornwallis

Few more days till graduation! If you ask me if I'm excited or feeling sad and reluctant to leave I couldn't give you a proper answer as I myself don't understand myself either but as time getting lesser I'm having more gathering and meeting up friends I don't usually meet. And also trying more and more food, cafe and stall in Penang. More food photos on my Instagram while this is an overdue post, one month back? 

Insisted on posting this article as this is that one place I would love to highly recommend people who visited Penang not only for their street food but for a little luxuriously dining experience on Malaysia food.

The place would be Kota Cornwallis! Their food is really really good, agreed by my friends too. They served local food in dining style. I and my friend really love their food, the way they cooked it, the dish they used, the arrangement of the food, the taste and even the smell of it. Below are our order, nyonya, laksa, tandoori and creme brulee.

Nyonya and laksa (each RM25)

You can see from the photo above, nyonya is presented on the left and laksa is presented on the right. I particularly like the laksa as the presentation of it is unique! They serve with six rolls of laksa noodles each with prawn, some cucumber slice, pineapple chunks wrap with rice paper and two fried version of crispy wrap not sure what's that made of but taste good which is juicy inside and crispy on the outside. The broth came with it is also flavorful with prawn scent. Who had thought of this, the combination is brilliant! The nyonya taste good too. It's arranged by layer served with base of otak, blue flower dyed coconut rice in the middle and topped with achar and rendang chicken. Last but not least the tandoori dish below. It served with two pieces of tandoori (it's hiding under the papadum) and two fried dumpling filling with lamb meat. The small little green thing there is a small bit piece of yoghurt.

Tandoori (RM29)

Creme Brulee (RM19)

I love this too! So so smooth. Each creme brulee served with different flavours and all three are great to me! But my friends commented that the gula melaka ones is too sweet for them. Anyway, I'm surprised with the original ones where you find black glutinous rice at the bottom and they matched perfectly with each others.

Flavour: Original with black glutinous rice, Pandan and Gula Melaka

Oops, not to forget that you need to pay for an entrance fee of RM10 for Mykad holder to enter the Fort. It will be slightly more expensive for non-Malaysian. Anyway, you will get a rebate of RM10 if your bill exceeds RM20, it's a great deal :) Remember to keep the receipt and show it to the waiter when you are about to pay your bill. In another way, you get to visit Fort for free! Embrace the history. Anyway, some night they do have performance and so, you might need to check for their event online.

And that's all for food, now people and selfie time!

Ending this post with our entrance ticket. Spot my charm bracelet *wink*